Lumberjacks were men who worked on lumber yards cutting down mostly
pine and oak trees. Lumber yards moved when a forest was cleaned out of
trees. Logging was mainly in the upper mid-west, Maine, Canada,
Scandinavia, Pacific north-west, and the Atlantic north-east.

A Lumberjack’s Work

Work for a lumberjack was hard and most shifts were ten hours long.
To make a full grown pine tree into lumber ready for work, a lumberjack
would first have to cut down pine trees (logging), and then saw the tree
into logs. The logs would then need to be split again. Lumberjacks would
then saw logs into boards, dried, and then were used for construction
purposes. After work a lumberjack would be extremely stiff and can
barely move.

Lumber Yards

A lumber yard had to be near or next to a forest or the whole
production of lumber was lost. A lumber yard was mostly in the mountains
because rich forests were nearby. Because of this, transporting lumber
was difficult for most lumber companies. Lumber yards had large piles of
finished and unfinished lumber scattered around every where. Lumberjacks
mostly lived in tents or log cabins made from the nearby lumber.

Culture

Lumberjacks Had fun doing their job. They
created sports out of logging. Burling is where two lumberjacks balance
on a log while going down a river to see who stays on longest.
Lumberjacks had a legend of Paul Bunyan who was a giant lumberjack who
had a blue cow named Babe. Most lumberjacks sang foot stomping songs
while they cut down trees. A common lumberjack wears green suspenders
and a plaid, red shirt.

Logging helped settlers by supplying them
with houses, fire wood, and furniture. Logging destroyed many forests
which made homes for animals and Native Americans scarce.